![]() They’re tiny, especially mice, but we see one and we immediately have that instinct to jump, to move away. “It’s interesting because we all sort of have that within us. That, to me, was the intriguing thing about the project,” Robbins said. “You’re dealing with something so elemental as tiny, scary creatures - not big monsters - but tiny, scary creatures, which is something that had not been done very often. Obviously, they’re fantastical and they move far quicker than something like that could move, but the idea of them being small, how do you make them scary?” I was finding things that exist that are actually quite horrific to look at. “I wanted it to feel like perhaps they could exist,” the director revealed. Since the beings reside in the basement of Blackwood Manor, Nixey looked to real-world animals that spend most of their lives in the dark. With better special effects and more money at their disposal, they weren’t limited to furry costumes and masks that didn’t allow for simple mouth movements. Nixey collaborated with fellow artists Chet Zar and Keith Thompson to bring the petite creatures into the modern age. The dark lighting and forced perspective shots in the TV movie definitely add an uncanny mystique to the monsters - even if it’s obvious that they’re just people waddling around in padded costumes.Ĭourtesy of Warner Bros. That said, their alien-like aesthetic would have definitely scared the bejesus out of me as a child. That is to say they look rather silly with “little prune-heads” and “Chewbacca bodies,” as Nixey described them. The creatures from the ‘73 version are on par with The Twilight Zone’s infamous plane-wrecking gremlin in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Thanks to his drawing skills, Nixey played an active role in designing the movie’s pint-sized antagonists. “It really explains a lot as to what Guillermo had in mind, to bring this guy’s mentality onto Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” Robbins explained. So it all just rolled out from there,” Nixey said. At that time, he was really pushing to help first-time directors get their first time gig. “He saw the short and really got a lot from it in terms of visuals and storytelling and imagination and that kind of thing. The Keyfiend’s steampunk-ish design, movements, and sound design are highly reminiscent of Johan Kraus in del Toro’s 2008 Hellboy sequel: The Golden Army. While watching the short, it’s easy to see why Nixey got the Don’t Be Afraid job. With the screenplay completed, del Toro set out to find a director and landed on Nixey, who got the gig thanks to his short film, “Latchkey’s Lament.” The atmospheric project tells the story of a nefarious being - The Keyfiend - that steals and consumes house keys. That was more of a plausible notion than just dismissing a woman because she happens to not be a man like in the first movie.” “Creating this character who’s lost between parents and doesn’t really have anyone to reach out to and as a result, their imagination might go wild to get attention as they were sort of accusing her of. “To me, that just made a lot more sense,” Nixey said of making the protagonist a young person reeling from their parents’ separation. Lovecraft, whose writings have influenced del Toro’s own work. ![]() The lavish estate is located in Providence, Rhode Island - most likely a nod to H.P. In the remake, Sally comes to live at the gothic-inspired Blackwood Manor, which her recently-divorced father, Alex (Guy Pearce), is fixing up with his new girlfriend, Kim (Katie Holmes). ‘You’ve gotta stop and pay attention!’ I was very happy to access all those feelings of frustration, rage, and how unjust it was that kids aren’t listened to.” “We, like that child, know that it’s real and we’re feeling. ‘It was only a dream.’ ‘You’re making it up.’ ‘See? There’s nothing here. When they brush you off or come up with some empty, cliched reassurance. “The most infuriating thing for a kid is when adults don’t take them seriously if something is the matter. Only the audience would believe her, thus ramping up the drama. As a result, it made a lot more sense for her claims of the fantastical to be disregarded by other characters (think Andy Barclay in Child’s Play). Robbins and del Toro updated the source material by turning Sally into a little girl (eventually played by Bailee Madison), who is preyed upon by the tiny monsters. ![]()
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